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Carolina Comments Historic Sites Commemorate 140th Anniversary of
Joint Annual Meeting of NCLHA and FNCHS Held in Asheville
On Friday, November 9, and Saturday, November 10, members of the North
Carolina Literary and Historical Association (NCLHA) and the Federation of North
Carolina Historical Societies (FNCHS) held their joint annual meeting in Asheville. The
occasion marked a rare meeting outside Raleigh, only the fourth time in the 107-year-
history of Lit and Hist that the organization has met elsewhere than the Capital City. The
trip west was scheduled to coincide with the display of the Bill of Rights at the University
of North Carolina at Asheville, the sixth of seven exhibit sites for the document in its tour
Carolina
Comments
Published Quarterly by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History
Rebecca Godwin (left) presents the R. Hunt Parker Memorial Award to Robert Morgan (right)
during the evening session of the annual meeting of the North Carolina Literary and Historical
Association and the Federation of North Carolina Historical Societies. Morgan also delivered the
Keats and Liz Sparrow Keynote Address at the meeting in Asheville. All images by the Office of
Archives and History unless otherwise indicated. of the state. On Friday evening former North Carolina Supreme Court justice Willis P.
Whichard discussed the right to a jury trial and due process. In a prelude to the meeting,
local book columnist Rob Neufeld led about twenty attendees on a walking tour of
downtown Asheville, highlighting architectural and literary landmarks.
Saturdays events commenced in the morning at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial State
Historic Site with a workshop sponsored by the FNCHS titled, Bringing History to Life:
Developing a Living History Program. Leading the seminar were Jo Ann Williford, edu-
cation supervisor under the deputy secretary of the Office of Archives and History; Rachel
Dickens of the North Carolina Museum of History; and Chris Morton of the Thomas
Wolfe Memorial. Afterwards Ms. Williford and her colleague, Laura Ketcham, directed a
board meeting of the FNCHS.
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C A R O L I N A
C O M M E N T S
For the Record
The North Carolina Literary and Historical Association
met in Asheville the weekend of November 9-10.
Organized in 1900, Lit and Hist played a direct role in
the establishment of the North Carolina Historical Com-
mission in 1903. Ever since, the organization has served
as a support group for the historical commission and its
successor agency, the Office of Archives and History.
The Asheville meeting underscored the statewide
presence of both Lit and Hist and Archives and History.
The latter has maintained a Western Office in Asheville since
1978. Plans are currently under way to renovate the Oteen
Center into a new regional office with exhibits and expanded
services from the Archives and Records Section. Staff members in the Western Office
will continue to provide consultative services in archaeology, historic preservation,
historic sites, and museums.
Lit and Hist, meanwhile, held only its fourth meeting in 107 years outside of
Raleigh. The meeting featured the sixth stop on the Bill of Rights tour at the
University of North Carolina at Asheville, with a lecture by former state supreme
court justice Willis P. Whichard on November 9. On the following day, the program
turned to presentations by writers of western North Carolina history and fiction. Poet
Laureate of North Carolina Kay Byer spoke on nature in poetry. Ron Rash discussed
how he used his family history in the Shelton Laurel massacre of 1863 for his award-
winning novel, The World Made Straight. Both Byer and Rash teach at Western
Carolina University. Robert Morgan, a native of Henderson County who teaches at
Cornell University, ended the program with a fascinating talk about Daniel Boone
from his new biography, Boone.
Members of the staff of Archives and History also contributed to the programs
success. David Tate and the staff of the Vance Birthplace State Historic Site took part
in the programming for the Bill of Rights tour at the University of North Carolina at
Asheville. Under the leadership of Jo Ann Williford, Rachel Dickens of the North
Carolina Museum of History and Chris Morton of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial State
Historic Site conducted a workshop on living history programs. Participants were
then treated to a living history demonstration in the Old Kentucky Home
boardinghouse.
The Bill of Rights tour and the Lit and Hist meeting demonstrate the vitality of
this agencys regional programming. The Asheville meetings were a great success. To
help assure the future success of such outreach programs, please visit the Web site of
the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association at www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/
affiliates/lit-hist/lit-hist.htm and consider becoming a member.
Jeffrey J. Crow The balance of the weekends events was held at the Renaissance Asheville Hotel,
adjacent to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial. Kevin Cherry of Washington, chairman of the
FNCHS, welcomed attendees to the afternoons proceedings, a mixture of speeches and
awards presentations. Appropriate to the meeting place, the three speakers were all west-
ern North Carolinians, each a literary luminary with an appreciation for the regions his-
tory. The afternoon speakers, both affiliated with Western Carolina University, were Kay
Stripling Byer, the states poet laureate, who spoke on Nature in Poetry, and Ron Rash,
who addressed The Role of the Shelton Laurel Massacre in The World Made Straight.
The speakers were preceded by a brief business meeting of the NCLHA, presided over by
association president Robert G. Anthony Jr., curator of the North Carolina Collection at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The first order of business for the afternoon session was the presentation of the 2007
Student Publication Awards by John Batchelor of Greensboro. In a tie, first place in the
high school division of the literary magazine competition went to two Charlotte schools,
Providence High School for Roars and Whispers, and Myers Park High School for The
Pegasus. Second place was shared by Enloe High School of Raleigh for Stone Soup and
Asheville Christian Academy for Sylva Rerum. Third place was presented to Chapel Hill
High School for Different Drummer. In the middle school division, Christ Covenant School
of Winterville was honored with first place for Soli Deo Gloria. Second place went to
Seventy-First Classical Middle School of Fayetteville for The Classical Quill and third place
to Charlotte Country Day Middle School for Pirates Treasure.
On behalf of the Historical Society of North Carolina, Joe A. Mobley presented the
R. D. W. Connor Award in recognition of the best article to appear in the North Carolina
Historical Review during the preceding year. The winner was Roger Biles of Illinois State
University for Tobacco Towns: Urban Growth and Economic Development in Eastern
North Carolina, which appeared in the April 2007 issue of the journal. The winner of
the 2007 Hugh T. Lefler Award for the best paper written by an undergraduate student
was Elizabeth Lundeen, formerly of Wake Forest University and now residing in England,
for her paper concerning Simon G. Atkins: Race Leader. Both awards were presented
in absentia as neither recipient was able to attend.
The American Association of University Women (AAUW) Award for Juvenile Litera-
ture, presented annually since 1953, went to Eleanora E. Tate of Knightdale for her book,
Celestes Harlem Renaissance (Little, Brown and Company, 2007), the fictional story of a
young Raleigh girl sent to live in 1920s New York after her father became ill. AAUW
member Elizabeth Laney of
Blowing Rock presented the
award to Ms. Tate, who read a
passage from the book to the
audience.
V O L U M E
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Eleanora E. Tate, winner of the
American Association of University
Women Award for Juvenile
Literature, reads a passage from her
book, Celestes Harlem Renaissance. Jeffrey J. Crow, deputy secretary of the Office of Archives and History, presented an
American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) Award of Merit to William S.
Powell of Chapel Hill for his book, Encyclopedia of North Carolina (University of North
Carolina Press, 2006). A second Award of Merit went to LeRae Umfleet and the Office
of Archives and History for the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Report. The study was also
one of only five projects in the nation recognized with a special WOW citation from
AASLH.
A highlight of the afternoon session was the opportunity to purchase books and have
them signed by the authors present. Malaprops Bookstore/Cafe, an independent book-
seller of Asheville, set up a display. The North Carolina Arts Council, which videotaped
the afternoon speakers, premiered its newly published Literary Trails of the North Carolina
Mountains, by Georgann Eubanks.
President Anthony welcomed